Welcome to LOST TONES which features tracks from hyper-rare recordings that aren’t available anywhere else on the web. These treasures are courtesy of George Scala, who runs the invaluable Free Jazz Research site. He’s generously shared them from his amazing archive so they can be enjoyed by more than just collectors. Each selection is something that we unequivocally love and feel deserves a wider audience.

ROSCOE MITCHELL SOUND ENSEMBLE
This double LP captures Roscoe Mitchell’s Sound Ensemble throwing down at the Detroit Institute of the Arts in October 1988. “Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin Shoes” was on Mitchell’s mind that night – the album features two radically different reworkings of the tune as well as the same band that waxed his 1980 Snurdy McGurdy album.

We’re sharing the firstand more faithful version of “Snurdy McGurdy.” Be warned that it’s an epic, stretching out to almost 27 minutes! That said, it’s pure pleasure. There’s a strolling ease and gentle forward momentum that makes the tune feel a fraction of its length. It’s not the sort of music you normally associate with Roscoe Mitchell – steady grooving and brimming with unapologetically prominent and meaty solos. Toward the end, it subtly shifts into the knottier and more diffuse “Spirits Among Stones” while still teasing out shards of the original melody.

If that was too in the pocket for you, the four-minute section of Joseph Jarman’s composition “Noncognitive Aspects of the City” should put you right. It’s a lovely tone drone that’s expertly layered with different sonorities. It’s a pocket-sized exploration of stasis along the lines of, say, LaMonte Young. Dig the chimes toward the end. Play loud for maximum effect.

We love the ’80s sidenote: This album concludes with a version of “Me Bop” by Lester Bowie that we’ll revisit in another post. No doubt this tune is an answer to Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop,” her timeless ode to female masturbation. Trumpeters seemed to have a thing for Ms. Lauper, given Miles Davis’s cover of “Time After Time.” Woe to those who ever doubted the free jazz/Cyndi Lauper connection!

MAYBE YOU WANNA SOUVENIR?

While this album isn’t available, the boutique label Cecma from Italy has reissued some of their other rare and intriguing offerings on CD. Check them out here.

And you want more Snurdy McGurdy? You should. The Nessa namesake album is one of Roscoe Mitchell’s most fun and accessible efforts. We believe it’s due to be reissued soon, but you can still snag copies of the first pressing now available so get it right now!

Where?

What?

An mp-free jazz blog focusing on rare or out-of-print music. We generally publish once a week. Songs will be available for a limited time, and are for evaluation purposes only.
Attend concerts. Buy music.